Cellamare conspiracy
There existed a party of malcontents who wished to transfer the regency from Orléans to his cousin, the young king's uncle, King Philip V of Spain. A conspiracy was formed, under the inspiration of Cardinal Alberoni, the first minister of Spain. It was directed in France by the Prince of Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador, with the complicity of the Duchess of Orléans' older brother, the duc du Maine, and Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, the latter's wife. In 1718, the Cellamare conspiracy was discovered and its participants exiled. Two years later its aims were revived in the Pontcallec conspiracy, four leaders of which were executed.
Guillaume Dubois, formerly tutor to the Duke of Orléans, and now his chief minister, caused war to be declared against Spain, with the support of Austria, England and the Netherlands (Quadruple Alliance). After some successes of the French marshal, the Duke of Berwick, in Spain, and of the imperial troops in Sicily, Philip V made peace with the regent (1720).
From the beginning of 1721, Philip V of Spain, and the Duke of Orléans had been negotiating the project of three Franco-Spanish marriages in order to cement tense relations between Spain and France. The young Louis XV of France would marry the three-year-old Infanta Mariana Victoria who would thus become Queen of France; the Infante Luis would marry the fourth surviving daughter of Philippe, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans; and the Infante Charles would be engaged to the pretty Philippine Élisabeth d'Orléans who was the fifth surviving daughter of Philippe. Only one of these marriages actually ever occurred.
In March 1721, the Infanta Mariana Victoria arrived in Paris amid much joy. Known as l'infante Reine (Queen-Infanta) while in France, she was placed in the care of the old Dowager Princess of Conti, Philippe's sister in law, and lived in the Tuileries Palace.
In November 1721, at the age of twelve, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans was married by proxy in Paris, Louise Élisabeth and her younger sister left for Madrid. Despite a cold reception from the Spanish royal family, especially by Elisabeth of Parma, the stepmother of her husband, she married Louis of Spain on 20 January 1722 at Lerma. Her dowry was of 4 million livres. The last of this triple alliance was Philippine Élisabeth who never married Charles; the marriage, though never officially carried out was annulled; the French sent back Mariana Victoria and in retaliation, Louise Élisabeth and Philippine Élisabeth were sent back to France. Franco-Spanish relations only recovered in 1743 when Louis XV's son Louis de France married Mariana Victoria's sister Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain.
On 15 June 1722, Louis XV and the court left the Tuileries Palace for the Palace of Versailles where the young king wanted to reside. The decision had been taken by the Duke of Orléans who, after the fall of Law's System, was feeling the loss of his personal popularity in Paris. Philippe took the apartments of his cousin the late Dauphin on the first floor of the Palace; the King's apartments were above his.
On 25 October of that year, the twelve-year-old Louis XV was anointed King of France in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims. At the end of the ceremony, he threw himself in the arms of Orléans.
In December 1722, the Regent lost his mother to whom he had always been close; the Dowager Duchess of Orléans died at Saint-Cloud at the age of seventy, with her son at her side, but he did not attend her funeral service because he had been called away on official business. Philippe was greatly affected by his mother's death.
On the majority of the king, which was declared on 15 February 1723, the Duke stepped down as regent. At the death of Cardinal Dubois on 10 August of that year, the young king offered the Duke the position of prime minister, and he remained in that office until his death a few months later.
The regent died in Versailles on 2 December 1723 in the arms of his mistress the duchesse de Falari. Louis XV mourned him greatly. The Duke of Bourbon took on the role of Prime Minister of France.
On 3 December, the Duke of Orléans' body was taken to Saint-Cloud where funeral ceremonies began the following day. His heart was taken to the Val de Grâce church in Paris and his body to the Basilica of Saint Denis, (about 10 km north of Paris), the necropolis of the French kings and their family.
The heart of the Duke of Orléans is now at the Chapelle Royale de Dreux, the necropolis of all the members of the Orléans family, built in 1816 by his descendant Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, wife of Philippe Égalité. The chapel was completed as the Orléans family royal Chapel during the reign of his great-great-grandson Louis-Philippe I, King of the French.
The Cellamare conspiracy is the subject of one of Alexandre Dumas' novels, The Conspirators (Le Chevalier d'Harmental).
